First the Opera then North.

Manaus was one of the richest cities in the world
and for a time it had a near monopoly on the supply of rubber (until the
British took tens of thousands of rubber tree seeds to Kew Gardens). In its
heyday the "rubber barons" had a magnificent opera house built (everything,
except the wood, was imported from Europe).

After many years of neglect the opera house has now been restored
and is in use nearly every day, with most performances being free!

We went to a performance of several extracts from Mozart operas
with four out-of-town singers performing the major roles, a 60 piece local
orchestra and a 90 strong chorus. A memorable performance. (The photograph,
below, was taken the following day and shows part of the orchestra
rehearsing.)

After re-stocked the vans at the worst Carrefour supermarket I
have every visited (but still the best supermarket we could find in the centre
of town, at S03.133149 W 60.023816) we headed north towards Venezuela. On the
way out of town we passed a much larger Carrefour at S03.078332 W60.024458.

There are only two major roads
out of Manaus, one heading north (the one we wanted) and one heading
north-east. We managed to pick the wrong one. There are no signs and even when
we retraced our route the correct road was hard to find. (For the record the
road to Boa Vista starts just after a police check point at S02.971633
W60.014745 as an unsigned left turn.)

We had been told many times that the Manaus to Boa Vista road was
"good". It is tarmac and in many places very good tarmac but there are many
sections with pot holes, particularly in the Waimiri Atroari
Reserve (where you are not allowed to stop or take photographs).

We are now parked in a layby (N01.369797
W60.626630) surrounded by birds (good) and insects (bad) having crossed the
equator again.

Stephen
Stewart.

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